Rebellion Brewing for Olympic Council of Ireland

(ATR) The arrest of Patrick Hickey could bankrupt the Irish NOC.

That’s one of the obvious conclusions that might be drawn from the revelation this weekend that more than €750,000 have been spent so far by the Olympic Council of Ireland as a result of the Hickey ticketing scandal.

Hickey, OCI president since 1989 and an IOC member since 1995, was arrested by Brazilian police during the final days of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He’s charged with breaking Brazilian ticketing laws over the sale of Olympic tickets allocated to the OCI.

Hickey says he is not guilty of the accusations.

OCI secretary general Dermot Henihan disclosed the spending in a letter to Irish sport federations this week, a seemingly off-handed mention in paragraph five that has laid bare a rift in the way the controversy is being handled.

"Under the direction of the Crisis Management Committee the Olympic Council expenditure is likely to exceed €750K directly on the review with Grant Thornton, Deloitte, Espion, Blacknight, Communication Clinic, Wilson Hartnell, and Arthur Cox legal fees," writes Henihan about the costs. The CMC, a three member team of sports leaders, was named in the hours after the Hickey affair exploded to guide the council through the mess.

But the CMC says it is not to blame for the spending cited by Henihan. In a letter sent to him a day later, the CMC says he is "incorrect".

"Your letter specifically sets the responsibility for considerable OCI expenditure at the door of the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) and may be interpreted by many as a public criticism of your fellow directors. It may also be perceived as an attempt by you to distance yourself from Executive Committee unanimous decisions leading again to a question around the governance of the organization," says the letter from the CMC.

Under the by-laws of the OCI, the council is obligated to pay for Hickey’s defense until a guilty verdict is rendered. In addition to attorney fees and related costs, the OCI bill also includes rent for an apartment in Rio for Hickey, who is banned from leaving Brazil. A request for the return of his passport is pending so that he can to Ireland for medical care.

The figure quoted by Henihan, if accurate, represents more than half of the OCI annual income. The Irish Times newspaper reported in an Aug. 16 article that annual revenue for the council is €1,379,000 for the year. A third of that amount is supplied by the Irish government says the report.

The costs are a major consequence of many that are rippling through Olympic sport in Ireland as well as the IOC, rising out of an effort to provide Hickey with the presumption of innocence.

The report by Grant Thornton, part of the expenses cited by Henihan, meant to provide an unvarnished glimpse into the OCI ticketing program won’t be released any time soon. That’s because lawyers for Hickey threatened to take the OCI to court to bar the release, fearing it could prejudice his case. The OCI says it could not justify the legal fees that would result so the report is quashed for now.

An emergency meeting of the OCI is supposed to be called at the end of January to elect new leadership. But whether that means ousting Hickey as well still hasn’t been declared.

Henihan, a fierce Hickey loyalist, refers to him as "our president" in the letter, despite the fact that Hickey suspended himself from the office pending adjudication of the charges.

The response from the CMC to Henihan reminds him that due to that suspension, "Mr Hickey has stood aside as President of the OCI and from all other Olympic functions until such time as judicial proceedings in Brazil involving him are completed.

"Mr Willie O’Brien is the OCI Acting President and due regard for this should be had in all correspondence," says the letter to Henihan.

No comment yet from Irish Minister of Sport Shane Ross or other Irish sports leaders about the mounting bills and the melt-down at the OCI. Ross, critical in the past about Hickey over the ticketing debacle, may be pressed to push for a way to limit the financial and political fallout that is coming.

Written by Ed Hula.